1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for recording received digital data streams on a recording medium and creating and recording management information pertaining to the recorded digital data streams. The present invention also relates to a method and apparatus for reproducing digital data stream.
2. Description of the Related Art
In conventional analog television broadcast systems, video signals are transmitted over the air or through cables after being AM or FM modulated. With the recent advance of digital technologies such as digital image compression or digital modulation/demodulation, standardization for digital television broadcast is in rapid progress. Based upon the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) format, satellite and cable broadcast industry also moves towards digital broadcast.
Digital broadcast offers several advantages that its analog counterpart cannot provide. For example, digital broadcast is capable of providing services with far more improved video/audio quality, transmitting several different programs within a fixed bandwidth, and offering enhanced compatibility with digital communication media or digital storage media.
In digital broadcast, a plurality of programs encoded based upon the MPEG format are multiplexed into a transport stream which is then transmitted. The transmitted transport stream is received by a set top box at the receiver and demultiplexed into a plurality of programs. If a program is chosen from the demultiplexed programs, the chosen program is decoded by a decoder in the set top box and original audio and video signals are retrieved. The retrieved audio and video signals can be presented by an A/V output apparatus such as a TV.
It is also possible to record the received digital broadcast signals on a storage medium instead of directly outputting the received broadcast signals to A/V output devices. The stored digital broadcast signals can be edited and retrieved afterwards. For example, a digital data stream received by a set top box can be stored in a streamer such as a digital video disk (DVD) recording apparatus after being transmitted through communication interfaces like an IEEE-1394 serial bus. Later, the stored digital data stream can be edited and transmitted back to the set top box so that the stored original digital audio and video data can be presented.
For the above-mentioned systems, it is necessary to develop a method for recording a received digital data stream on a recording medium by partitioning the received data stream into minimum presentation units, each minimum presentation unit being a data decoding unit. Unless the recorded data stream maps to random-accessible minimum presentation units, the initial reproduction of the recorded stream after search operations may be imperfect.